Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) technology for highly integrated microstructures, which is based on semiconductor processing technology, is fundamentally performed through deposition and etching processes using chemical reactions, and thus the emission of hazardous substances, such as etchants, reaction gases, and materials remaining after reaction becomes a serious problem.
Meanwhile, inkjet printer head technology is expected to be applied in various fields, and in order to overcome the above-described problem, technology capable of achieving a relative reduction in the emission of hazardous substances by forming patterns selectively only at desired portions using the inkjet printer head technology is also used in semiconductor manufacturing processes in the IT field.
Particularly, as the market size of the display industry rapidly grows with the rapid development of the flat-panel display industry, the display industry is under pressure from declining price along with technical challenges arising from trends towards becoming more lightweight, slim and large-scale. For this reason, the inkjet printer head technology capable of considerably reducing the number of processes compared to existing semiconductor processing technology was recognized as a new technology for ensuring market competitiveness and has been actively studied. Moreover, the application of the inkjet printer head technology is gradually expanding to, in addition to the display industry, various others involving microsensors, biochips, RFID, micro-antennas, biological cell cultures, etc.
The technology of ejecting fluid in the form of droplets using an electrostatic field has been applied in various applications, including coating or particle production processes, and also to mass spectrometry for protein analysis. In addition, the development of inkjet heads employing an electrostatic field was recently reported, but there is no report on combining the inkjet head with roll-to-roll printing technology.
The roll-to-roll printing technique has been actively studied in fields such as RFID, because it has an advantage in that it can manufacture devices at high speed. However, it has a disadvantage in that it is difficult to form micropatterns, having a very small linewidth, and multi-patterns.
Meanwhile, an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) inkjet system has an advantage in that it can form very small patterns, but is disadvantageous in that the patterning speed thereof is slower than that of the roll-to-roll printing system. Therefore, there is a need for a technology capable of performing printing using the roll-to-roll printing system in combination with an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) inkjet system.